Whispers in the Dark
by PiperKierra
Summary: Abby and Jess disappear - Inside summary is better than what I could leave here. Abby/Connor - Becker/Jess adventure.
1. The Ghosts We Know

**Whispers in the Dark**

**A/N: **_This is my first Fan fic story about a British show. My grammar is suckish and my spelling not always on spot, but I hope that someone gets a kick out of this story._

**Spoilers: **_This story is set post Series 5. So, stuff may be mentioned. :P_

**Summary: **_A degrading set of circumstances cause an uninhabitable condition that forces Abby and Jess from the A.R.C. through an anomaly just before the anomaly closes. Connor and Becker are at their wits end, searching for their loved ones as they feign normalcy – tackling anomaly after anomaly – praying that the next one will bring Abby and Jess back to them. It's been seven long hard months…_

**Chapter One: The Ghosts We Know**

"_Connor, it's getting too high," Her voice shivered in bouts of breath and gasps intermittently disrupted over the intercom speakers, a frantic slosh accompanying each word. _

"_I know, I Kn…" Connor broke off his own words fraught with a myriad of muddled emotions as he chanced a glance through the window of the room he was trying his damndest to get into. Lockdown and a flood of water coming from the anomaly that had opened in the A.R.C. had Abby and Jess trapped in one of the labs as he, Matt, and Becker fought to get through the door that stood between them and the rest of their team. _

_The lockdown was triggered by the plankton and phytoplankton that surged in the water that was spilling through the anomaly. The organism readings were off the charts, even if they were microscopic and seemingly harmless as of yet. _

_Now they were reaching a threshold where Jess and Abby could possibly drown and the added pressure wasn't helping to get through the added security that had rendered Connor's previously established backdoor null and void. _

"_Connor…" Abby couldn't manage another word as she was suddenly sucked under, her last breath taken in the lab as the waters reached the ceiling. Her hold on the unconscious Jess tightened as she sank, swimming mid room height her open eyes peering through the murky depths to meet Connor's through the lab window._

_A bubble of air escaped her lips as her lack of oxygen made up her mind before the panic could set in. She looked back to the brilliant tendrils of light that throbbed all around her and Jess then back to Connor pleadingly. She met his eyes as long as she could before she had to break contact and swim. _

_In tear streaked horror Connor watched Abby drag Jess through the anomaly to hopefully save them both as he continued to fight his losing battle with the lockdown, his own screams seeming silent against the waters depth inside the lab._

"Connor!" Connor jumped awake, the memory of Abby and Jess's disappearance having played out in nightmare wonder in his dreams. He raised his head, keyboard impression still vibrant against his pale cheek in hues of red lined splendor.

He shook off the last throws of the nightmare, fluorescent lab light invading his senses as he looked to the door to find Matt perched there casting a concerned glance in his direction. "Anomaly," And that was all the explanation he had to hear. Connor finally caught sight of the flashing red beyond the lab doorway, in the hall. He scrambled up, yanking his coat from the chair back and took off at a flustered sprint.

A second later and he scrambled back, grabbing the anomaly dating device from his disaster of a desk before falling in line behind Matt. Emily joined them, moving at a brisk walk from the menagerie, before they all three met up with Becker who was already locked and loaded with a team of soldiers near a couple of dark SUVs.

"You alright?" It was a loaded question, leveled straight at Connor, who looked a mess of dark circles and sunken skin. He'd practically been living at the A.R.C. for the last seven months. He didn't look alright, hell he didn't look like he'd seen the light of day in the last week long break between anomalies.

"Rosy," Connor lied easily, not about to spill the obvious about his decline over the last seven months. "I just fell asleep at my desk. The alarm took me off guard." He explained to Becker.

Becker seemed satisfied enough with the reply as he turned back around in his seat, Matt glancing worriedly between the two of them with glances in the rear view between his measure sight on the road.

Matt caught Emily's eye as he was worriedly switching his gaze between the passengers and they shared a knowing concerned glance. They had both been worried about Becker and Connor over the last seven months as their behavior had been declining with each passing month. Their losses were weighing heavy on both their hearts and it was only a matter of time before Lester pulled them from active duty at their current pace.

Matt slammed the first SUV to a stop, the one behind him following suite, the whole group throwing their doors open with weapons at the ready as they beheld the anomaly, which towered over the three story apartment building before them. It seemed situated on the roof and they had no word on whether there was a creature incursion or not.

A multitude of glances were cast skyward before orders rang out from Matt and the team and their back up moved in tandem. They traversed the lifts, leaving a man on each stairwell as they made their way to the roof.

A cacophony of cityscape transitions wound around them as the door to the rooftop burst open, giving them ample line of sight on the pulsing anomaly at the rooftops western edge. Becker and Connor seemed a bit deflated upon seeing the absence of occurrence all around this one. An occurrence that was all too familiar since Abby and Jess's disappearance seven months ago.

"Prepare to lock the anomaly," Matt called as he looked back to Connor who was already trying to take a date on the other end of this one, hoping to match it to the date they had for the fresh water lake that had swallowed Abby and Jess.

Connor was already making his calculations, the device pointed in hopes that it would say…

"8,733B.C." Connor barely got it out as a whisper.

It was the same year that Abby and Jess had disappeared into.

All eyes turned to Connor and Becker who both looked ready to bolt.

"We don't know where they are, this could…" Matt began but Becker cut him off.

"This could be the only opportunity…" And it was Connor that cut him off as he leveled his weapon on Matt, daring him to take a shot at him.

"She's through there…I'm going after her..."

And in a heartbeat, Connor was racing for the anomaly…with Becker at his back…

**A/N: I hope someone likes this story. The next chapter is about where they end up and who ends up there. Reviews would be nifty Peace to all. **


	2. Code of Survival

**Chapter Two: Code of Survival**

"_I stumbled upon it while I was looking for my hair pin," Jess was a mess of nerves and grins as she turned the velvety black box in her hands over and over. "He popped out of the shower so quick I had to pocket it or he'd have known I knew." _

"_Do you think he's planned to propose over the holiday?" Abby placed a steady hand on Jess's forearm, so happy that her dear friends would soon be joining her and Connor in wedded bliss. The romance wouldn't have been such a shock had Jess and Becker not hid it from the team for nearly three months. The delay was mostly fear over what Lester might say, but that soon abated as soon as they were found out. _

_Lester seemed more down to Earth than previously thought possible, so long as the A.R.C. was running according to plan he could have cared less who was involved. And oh how things had been running smoothly, minus a few carefully covered incidents involving creatures and the public, luckily nothing that brought the A.R.C. into the spot light like creature incursions during the convergence. _

"_Has to be," Jess smiled brightly, but Abby noticed that she looked three shades of pale. _

_Abby's smile faltered as she tightened her hold on Jess's arm in support. "This is a good thing, right?" her tone bore the concern that she carried in her eyes. _

"_It is. it is." Jess chirped out as she swallowed tightly. "But how am I going to sneak the ring back into the night stand? Abby, I'm not good at sneaking around. I was sure he'd found me out with one glance this morning." _

_Abby calmed regaining her smile as she realized that Jess wasn't nervous about Becker asking her to marry him, only about ruining the surprise that he had planned. "I can phone and distract him." She offered with a smirk. _

"_That would be brilliant." Jess captured Abby in a hug in relief just before a sudden warning alarm had them both looking up to take in the flashing red just as a slosh of water came surging across the floor from the nearby supply closet._

Abby jumped awake, finding that rivulets of rain, running into puddles, were forming inside their makeshift shelter. Her feet were soaked in a heartbeat. She cursed under her breath, tugging her oversized sable dark cloak around her tighter.

"We're breaking camp," Jess whispered with a shiver.

Abby frowned as she yanked the frigid cold soaked socks from her feet and dried her feet with the underside of the cloak before thrusting them into her boots, quick to tie them. "Grim, shouldn't be pushing the group in this weather." She cautioned tiredly. "Are Valenti's men onto us again?"

Jess shook her head to Abby's question before she explained the reason for uprooting all 147 of them, "Sorcha says that the storm will turn to ice, Grim wants to make the caves by sunset."

Jess crouched over Abby and offered her hand which Abby took readily, the both of them straining as Jess pulled Abby carefully to her feet, the reason for the difficulty now obvious, even with the loose fitting cloak. "Can you make the trek?" Jess asked her worriedly as Abby's hands gently cradled her expanded belly.

"We can make it," Abby gave Jess a reassuring smile and grabbed her pack, the both of them hurriedly packing up their meager gear before Abby threw open the swath of mammoth hides that adorned the lean-to and stepped out into the brisk winter chill, the cold taking her breath for a moment.

Sunlight danced over the soggy woodlands, broken by the naked branches and dead collage of browns and amber. Despite the bleak landscape the camp was alive with frantic movement as the women hurriedly packed up belongings before handing the larger hides to their husbands for transport.

"Any activity?" Abby asked of the anomaly detector that they'd managed to salvage from the debris that had been sucked into the frigid waters through the anomaly.

"Nothing," Jess got it out in a hoarse whisper, her voice coming and going on the heels of the chest cold that hadn't quite finished with her yet. They both pulled the mammoth hide down, working to get it into a more compact fold before Jess pulled it to her chest, barely able to keep both arms around it as she scanned the crowd for Loct.

Abby sensed the surge of guilt as she placed a calming hand on her friend's back. "Spring is right around the corner, we can escape then." She promised her. They wouldn't survive if they left now and so they had to play the roles they were dealt. Captives of the tribe were either killed or taken in, Abby supposed they were lucky to have been taken as wives, but the pain that accompanied their betrayal ran bone deep. The fact that it couldn't be helped only seemed to intensify the sense of victimization.

Abby looked for Loct's brother Amn and finally spotted him, motioning Jess in that direction. Loct and Amn were rooted in the traditions of their people and quick to teach their wives with a heavy hand, lest they be disgraced by their women's inability to adapt to the ways of the tribe.

Still the tribe was better than trying to survive the harsh overtones of an ending ice age or dealing with Valenti and his growing dictatorship at the Atlantic Institute.

Abby and Jess pulled their cloak hoods over their pale faces, the braided wisps of blonde and mahogany locks poking around their faces as they took a look back at the now bare camp sight, the tribes presence but a memory as the large group surged forward through the forest making their path South.

**OoOoOoOoOoO**

Lester would pull Connor and Becker off of active duty the moment they returned to the A.R.C. Of that, Matt was sure. Yet for now…there wasn't a force on Earth that could have stopped them from walking into that surge of light so Matt, Emily, and two of Becker's military escort followed them, leaving the others to lock the anomaly for the next two hours. Matt's hope was that Abby and Jess had a detector with them and that luck was on their side today.

Blinding light gave way to a chilled barren landscape of rain kissed rocky hills, the sky a familiar shade of foreboding gray. "Keep alert," Becker cautioned, his voice shivering from more than the cold as he looked the area over, hope riding high on his shoulders.

There was a strange hum to the air that had all of them puzzling as they made their way slowly up the rocky slopes toward the more familiar sound of a rush of waves crashing against cliff ridden shoreline.

They all froze, weapons slowly lowering in awestruck wonder as a domed city came into view along the coast. A large dome covered the bulk of the city, with a smaller in the center covering what looked to be the ruling sector. There were farms inside and out of the largest dome with what looked like a bustling trade in and out.

"This isn't supposed to be here," it was the understatement of the millennium, spoken by Matt as Becker leveled his gun sight on the billboard-esque sign at the entrance of the city. He pulled his gaze away even more shocked if it was possible before looking again to be sure.

"Connor," Becker whispered, unable to find the full strength of his voice.

Connor took the gun and lined up the sight to catch a look of the city's name and gasped in a breath. A weathered gray plaque, had succumbed to the elements so that it had lost readability of the whole name, most of the letters of the second word were missing, but it was what was left that sent Connor's mind swimming.

There spelled out for all to see was the following…

Atlant...I...s

**OoOoOoOoOoOoO **

**A/N: **_I appreciate the reviews, it's amazing what a show of interest can do to spur on a muse. Thanks a bunch _

**Next Chapter:** The tribe runs into a scouting party from the Atlantic Institute while Connor, Becker, and the others meet Valenti.


	3. Heart Lines

**A/N: **_Thanks for the reviews – You guys rock. =)_

_Also if you would like to see a promo video for this story then check out my profile page on fan fic. _

**Chapter Three: Heart Lines**

_For the first time since before the Cretaceous, Connor felt truly alone. His snail pace trudge through the flat was fraught with prodding memories splayed in photos and knickknacks. _

_It was the fourth day since Abby and Jess had to make their escape through the anomaly to stave off drowning. Lester ranted to the point of threats before Connor finally was escorted from the A.R.C. He wasn't the only one forced. _

_He'd noticed Becker stumbling through the drained lab retrieving a velvet box with confusion and tears just before the decision came down. Lester made it clear that he didn't want to see Connor or Becker for at least three days. Emily escorted Becker home and it was Matt who got the privilege of escorting Connor. _

_Trust might have been easier to come by had the whole A.R.C. not seen the self-destruction that was happening in both Connor and Becker's life in rays of desperation that bleed through the lines of sleep and coherency. _

"_Shower," Matt called on his way to the kitchen and Connor obeyed in a numbing fog, lost in his own fears. It had taken them a year to get home the last time, but at least then, they had each other. Danny had been gone longer, and the sad truth that he knew in his heart, was that sometimes people didn't make it home. _

_The only way he could calm his hammering heart was to constantly reassure himself that anomalies opened to similar time frames all over the world. He would find her. No matter that she was at and in the dawn of civilization or that she had their unfield-worthy ADD operator with her. Abby could protect herself. She could. _

_He would find her. _

_Connor turned the shower on to allow the hot water to reach the spout, unwinding his maroon scarf. He tugged his necklace from his neck, and shrugged out of his T-shirt, fingers just resting over the waistline of his pants when he noticed some foreign pink offence in the waste basket. _

_He narrowed his eyes, Abby didn't subscribe too much, even in personal grooming, in pink, Connor leaned down and plucked the packaging from the trash, holding it up for a read and he froze. His hand closed tightly around the crumpling box of the empty pregnancy test box as he felt as if someone had just sucker punched the remaining air from his lungs. _

_He was spinning, knees weak, breath gone. Connor couldn't even accept the fact that Abby was gone, possibly never to return. He dropped the carton, hitting his knees beside the sink as he jerked the waste basket to him, voraciously tearing through the contents as he searched for the test that might reside there. _

"_Conn…" Matt broke off in the doorway as Connor's fingers finally found the plastic stick and he shook the rest of the garbage away, glassy eyes finding the test result window along the plastic piece. _

_Connor swallowed tightly, as tears slipped past whatever crumbling defenses he had left. The test clattered to the floor at Matt's feet, Connor fighting for breath as he realized in one hear beat that the horror of the situation had just become all the more agonizing. He hadn't just lost Abby. _

_He'd lost their child as well._

"If they came through near here, they would have sought shelter…" Becker was the speaker of the obvious today but it was Matt who now had the city in his sights that cut him off.

"In the city that so obviously shouldn't be here?," He asked softly as though the troops with gun like weapons all around the shore side of the dome might hear him even from the distance that they had on them from the cliff top.

"That can't really be Atlantis…" Connor scoffed, unable to tear his gaze from the glass like dome that reflected the sunlight in rainbow refractions of tiny glints here and there.

"Who's to say," Matt sighed heavy as the bunch of them looked down over the city in wonder. "I need to get back to the anomaly and change the schedule."

Becker gave a nod of understanding. Knowing what they did know, they would need more than two hours; they just had to hope that the anomaly stayed open as long as they needed. It looked like they had a situation that had been brewing that could alter the future.

"Holster your weapons," It was perfect English that greeted them, from an era where the language was but a twinkle in a distant ancestor's eye. The whole lot of them turned slowly to find that they had been out-stealthed, soldiers wearing much the same get up as those of the one's guarding the domed city now bore down on them – outnumbering them and Becker and his men all readjusted their weapons to take the guys out, but Matt made the call.

"Lower them," He ordered, seeing this going nowhere good. "We mean you no harm." Matt just prayed that he knew what he was doing as he saw those that he was with begin to comply. They had too much to live for now, those that wanted to go home were waiting for the word to make a beeline for the anomaly and those that only wanted to find their loved ones in one piece were looking to make sure they lived through this encounter.

"You speak English," The man in charge of the others was obvious, dressed much more elaborately as he stepped to the guarded front of the line, without a weapon.

"As do you," Matt countered offering a hand as he stepped forward now unarmed.

"Fair, I'm Vitri Valenti," He offered his hand. Matt accepted watching wearily as he looked past him gauging the distance to the anomaly and just what it would take to get there. Emily shouldn't have to die here with the rest of them.

"Matt Anderson," he offered his hand and merely narrowed his eyes when the man narrowed his own and registered no recognition as he offered his own hand in greeting. "We're not here to disturb you or your kin, just to look for a few friends of ours. We'll move on without cause for arms."

Vitri Valenti smirked with a knowing grin that soon turned heinous as he met Matt's eyes. "I'm sure you would…" Valenti looked to the guard and gave the order… "Strip them of their weapons and bring them in in shackles."

As the trooped advanced on them the fight was on, but the strength in numbers lay with the stealthy group of Vitri and soon Connor, Becker, and Matt were all in shackles alongside their men that made it through the fight.

Connor who was situated right behind Becker stated softly, yet in conviction, "I hope they didn't come this way." He whispered praying that Abby and Jess met a much lovelier fate.

"Me and you both," Becker whispered.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoO**

Abby sank against the cave wall in absolute bliss that the tribe had stopped moving. She was exhausted. Hell, exhausted seemed like a dream from where she sat. She closed her eyes, leaning her head back as all around her she heard the others moving to set up their dwellings for the night, if not longer.

She would have done the same, could she have moved. "Hey, I've got it." Jess chuckled with a bit of a cough. Abby nodded tiredly, not about to argue. She let her friend and sister by unwanted marriage set up their home inside the cave.

Abby had been more quarrelsome when she had more energy, but even that was waning at the moment. She was getting close to term and she knew it. Even if she had let her tribal husband believe that the baby was his.

Amn was excited. More excited that Abby would have liked, but then, come spring this would all be some distant memory. She could hope anyway. The language gap was still being bridged but the involuntary total immersion program had worked wonders and She and Jess were now fluent in the ancient nutter language of the tribe. It wasn't English or Gaelic or anything else either one of them recognized, but they both now spoke it.

It was ancient whatever came before … And Abby felt guilty that she was without Connor and still stunned by the creatures she and Jess had witnessed even in the company of the tribe. Mammoths shouldn't have still been around yet they were, not in great numbers, but she'd seen them hunted.

And then there was the

"Abby!" Abby whirled to see Jess scurrying back into the twilight cave in horror.

She froze, waiting til Jess met up with her to learn what troubled her so, even though she had some rough idea…

"Valenti's men," Jess whispered.

Abby met her eyes in horror. Vitri was a blight on humanity as a whole and she feared him…

OoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Next Chapter: Abby and Jess make it out of the tribe while Connor and the others learn of the practices of the Altlanteans.


	4. Those that Came Before

**A/N: **_This is probably the last Chapter for a few days – Holidays and family and what not. Again, always appreciative of feedback, lets me know that people are reading and enjoying :) Thank you. _

_So I sort of alluded to Abby's pregnancy in the second chapter. I know there were some questions about who the Daddy was – Connor – Yay :) I just couldn't let it be Amn's. I also said that she was near to term in the last chapter and that means that she's near her due date. Sorry for any confusion there. _

_I know there are still questions about Atlantis and who might be trying to change the future; I think this chapter and the next few should clear those up. _

**Chapter Four: Those that Came Before**

_Abby cradled Jess's head in her lap, softly stroking her hair as she stared blankly at the slick metal that reflected their reflection in fun house mirror shadows. The moon light that shown through a tiny skylight window, impossible to reach, was their only reprieve from the darkness. _

_She'd imagined a thousand ends for them as she tugged Jess through the anomaly. Connor had left a new prototype for a more accurate dating instrument in her lab when they went for lunch so she was at least able to get a reading as to what time they were headed for._

_She'd imagined horrors, oceans of horrors, but never this. _

_Jess shivered against her, jerking awake at a scramble and Abby quickly broke contact with her, trying to allow her to realize that she was safe, at least for the moment. "Jess, it's just me," Abby whispered as soothingly as she could, shackled hands held up in a show of harmless support. _

_They both looked like hell. Three days out of the future and into a nightmare. They'd surfaced near a domed city that had Abby questioning the accuracy of Connor new device. By the time they reached the shore, the city guard was there and the welcome…the welcome left a lot to be desired. _

"_I thought they'd come back," Jess was trying to catch her breath, winded from the fright upon waking. _

"_Not yet," Abby wished she had the luxury of optimism. "They're on a break." _

"_Whose turn is it?" Jess swallowed tightly unable to look Abby in the eye, the guilt for praying that it was her friend and not herself, weighing on her. _

"_Mine, if they hold to the same pattern," Abby sighed closing her eyes. The inventive torture was getting Vitri Valenti nowhere, but he was too paranoid to believe that they weren't spies sent to destroy his empire. _

Becker hit his knees as soon as the guards released him just beyond the cell door. He didn't stay there long, however, as momentum pulled him forward and he only just managed to turn his head before he fell further, landing on his stomach.

Emily untangled herself from Matt as the both of them achingly made their way over. Becker rolled hallway to his side, trying to get his tongue to work, but his jaw was clenching involuntarily. "Don't try to move for a few moments," Emily whispered. "The muscle spasms subside but it takes time."

Becker took the advice as Matt settled in next to him, beside Emily. "Look just blink for now, if you can. Did they ask you what project you were affiliated with? One blink for yes, two for no." Matt implored him.

Blink.

"They asked the same of us," Emily sighed softly looking more worrisome.

"Where…" Becker tried to force the words out, but curled up as another expanse of muscle spasms took him over in a pained seizure like attack. Emily and Matt both tried to give some measure of soothing as they massaged the knotted muscles.

"Don't speak, yet." Matt cautioned again as soon as Becker finally calmed. "Connor is still with Valenti," Matt could only guess that Becker was asking where Connor was.

"We believe that Valenti is proof that we were able to change the future," Emily explained softly.

Becker gave a pointed blink in agreement. They were too technologically advanced to be even from the near future of the teams present time.

"Matt thinks that they may be doing research," Emily explained, trying to keep Becker's mind off the pain that hadn't yet abated. "Worried about some sort of theft."

Blink, blink. Becker doubted that. This city was a permanent settlement, and it looked as if it had been here for quite some time.

"They called it the Atlantic Institute, that suggests research and they seemed to think that we're from another institute, namely the Bombay," Matt argued his case.

Blink, blink. It didn't matter what they were called, this was warfare, interrogating the prisoners of war for information – not worried about theft. Whatever was going on between these institutes it wasn't simply research. Research had a goal, an end product; these people were set up to stay indefinitely.

This seemed more about empires and territories than it had to do with profitable goals. "This isn't about research," Becker finally regained his voice. He stretched his jaw opening his mouth wide a few times as he was able to pull himself to a sit. "How long would you say this place has been here?"

Matt gave the question some thought with a frown. "There's obvious signs of renovation in the gardens and roadways, buildings, from the age of some and the type of renovations I'd say we're looking at a city that's been operating for at least a century."

Becker nodded slowly. "This is a colony, Matt." The question of the hour was 'What was a colony from the newly saved future, doing in the prehistoric past?'

OoOoOoOoOoO

"There! There!" Vitri raised his voice over Connor's waning scream as he motioned to the wall that was being used as a viewing screen for the memories that were being presented to all via the conduit that was now interfaced with Connor's memory, via a long flexible needle threaded into a encoded port at the base of his skull just under the hair line against the middle of his neck.

Connor collapsed in the chair he was secured to, a chair that reminded him of a trip to the dentist. It took him a moment to be able to focus on the scenery that had Vitri so excited. Were he not in excruciating pain he might have found his memories playing out on a wall, like a Saturday morning special, a little more disturbing. As it was though he could barely make out the picture of Abby that Vitri had gotten so excited about.

She was laughing and despite it all when Connor saw her his lips reflected the smallest hint of a pain laced smile, that is, until Vitri went on. "That's the infiltrator that killed Micah," He snarled.

Connor felt his whole world in a free fall a moment later, when Vitri ordered the footage they had on a similar session to be brought up side by side next to the footage of his memories. It was her memories. Him. He was laughing right there beside her, from her point of view.

Abby and Jess had been here and that bastard had put them through this very hell.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Abby absently scratched at the sealed port just under her hairline as she searched the deepening darkness beyond the cave entrance. She closed her eyes, focusing on the deliberate movements, the padding and unmistakable crush of leaves under a softly laid foot.

They had the cave surrounded. "They'll enslave the lot of us," Abby whispered to Jess, fear heavy as she wound her hand protectively over her belly. "Well them, us they'll kill." She rethought it, knowing that that Vitri was out for her blood even more after their previous escape that left one of his officers dead.

Jess swallowed the lump forming as she laid a supporting hand against the small of Abby's back in comfort. "Do you think they'll wait until the men leave on the hunt in the morning?"

"That or they'll use the night for a surprise attack," Abby nodded. "Either way, we can't be here." Abby wouldn't have dreamed of leaving the tribe in the dead middle of winter, for it was hard enough to make it with the group, but she didn't many choices at the moment. Vitri's men had superior weapons and would have the tribe dominated in little time.

If they were captured again, they would die for sure. "We'll have to make a run for it in the night." Abby knew it was less than ideal, but they had to do something. Amn and Loct sure as hell couldn't protect them, "Just like we planned for spring."

" Except for all the snow and ice," Jess scoffed, trying to play it off with a hint of sarcasm as she peered worriedly out into the night. "I heard some of the men talking over late meal; they said there was another cave system to the Southwest, two days travel. Maybe we can make it."

"We'll have to." Abby nodded.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

**Next Chapter: **_Connor makes a discovery that could lead to escape. Abby and Jess run into difficulty staying out of the elements when they run into more of Valenti's men._


	5. 11 Minutes

**Happy Holidays!**

**A/N: **_Sorry for the awful dialogue between Becker and Matt, obviously my brain has taken a vacation. And my lovely Beta Reader as well :P The latter actually has and thus there was the whole stating the obvious moment all over again. Alas it's fixed. _

_The feedback has been so nifty :) kudos and cuddles :D_

_This is Chapter Five as thanks and as a holiday present :D_

**Chapter Five: 11 Minutes **

_Emily jumped, hearing something – probably glass – shatter against the far wall in the next room. Matt should have made sure Becker made it home alright. She was almost sure she could have done more good for Connor. Now she didn't know what to do. _

_She heard muffled swearing, a growl, something hit the wall again, this time bouncing off and landing in a clatter against the floor. It all started with the box. One single little box. Becker had paled when he first saw it floating at knee depth inside the lab. _

_Connor had been trying to get into the computers through the backdoor to shut the lock down while Matt was breaking into the electrical console to cut power to the air pump and fans so that the oxygen couldn't be pumped out of the room. _

_Emily had felt like a fly on the wall as Jess looked from the box to Becker, while Abby fought to get a date on where the anomaly led. Silent understanding passed between them and Emily felt her heart sinking as Jess trudged through the rising water to the door. _

"_You knew?" Becker's voice wouldn't have broken a whisper as his hand pressed firmly against the glass; his body flush against the door now as though somehow the metal and glass would disappear between them. _

"_Only just this morning," Jess flashed a pain laced smile that dwindled quickly as she placed her shivering fingers against the glass opposite his. "It's beautiful." She whispered and Emily swallowed tightly seeing a tear slip down Jess's cheek._

"_Say yes," Becker's own voice had been choked with emotion and Emily remembered having to cover her mouth to keep the gasp that escaped her lips from reaching them. "Be my wife, we'll get you out, we'll grow old together, just say yes." _

_Jess met his eyes, stifling a sob and Emily knew it was bittersweet, but she read the love for him there in her gaze. She nodded slowly, tears streaming against her cheeks finally able to whisper out her reply. "Yes." _

"_Yeah?," Becker was crying too and Emily was as well, heart breaking for the both and simultaneously praying that he was right, that they would live happily ever after._

"_Yeah," Jess reaffirmed smiling brighter through the tears. "Now get me out of here so I can give you a proper kiss." She shivered out the words. _

"_Jess we have to get on the table, out of the water," Abby called then, breaking their moment as fears of hypothermia began to set in. _

_Three days later, with Jess and Abby gone, Becker had only the box to bring home with him. Emily jumped as something else hit the wall and she leaned herself against the hallway near the entrance to his flat, waiting for the breaking to end. _

"All I'm saying is that if the technological curve accelerated at the same rate as it did in our life time then these people have to be at least two to three centuries ahead of us. They're using pure crystal disks like a flash drive." Connor grunted as he overstretched his reach and plucked a slender metallic wire out of the ceiling from a larger collection of the same. "Everything in here is fiber optics…" he broke off reconsidering. "…Something similar…"

Emily nodded as if she was paying attention as she looked over her shoulder to where Becker and Matt stood side by side, Becker with his arms crossed over his chest, right foot resting against the wall, knee bent.

"Their weapons look shoddy, ill kept." Becker was telling him softly. "Nonlethal force, but they can fight. In small groups we can best them hand to hand, better if we can get our hands on our own weapons." Becker gave him the rundown of how he critiqued their military stance from what he's been able to see and experience from resisting interrogation.

"The cells aren't even monitored, save the viewing window. They've probably been diverting power for years to keep more primary systems in working order." Connor was still going on; unaware that she was paying more attention to Matt and Becker's conversation.

They all seemed to be bouncing back well considering that they were taking turned being questioned in a torturous fashion. Of course it helped that they now knew that Abby and Jess had been here, albeit seven months ago. Connor had also shared that they had escaped and in the escape Abby had killed one of Vitri's officers, an incident he was sure wasn't intentional and even if it was, it was probably warranted.

"We'll have to time this just right," Matt was nodding as he took it all in. They'd have to make the interrogators were on a break as they were now, so they insured that everyone was present for the break out.

The words had no sooner passed his lips than Connor finished tying two strange metallic contacts together and the door to the cell suddenly hissed before it popped open outward.

Silence fell of the group as they all exchanged brief glances before simultaneously making a break for the door and the corridor beyond. Connor stepped out of the way, allowing Becker the lead – Becker taking down the first two guards in a heartbeat before motioning the rest of them onward.

"It's 11 minutes to the exit closest to the cove," Matt whispered as they moved.

Connor paused at the next cell over and peered in the window finding the rest of their men as he quickly began to dismantle the door lock to get them out, using access to the 'wiring' through the ceiling. Two minutes later, the door popped open.

Becker, Matt, and Emily scouted ahead, another four guards going down in their wake before Connor and the others caught up with them. They hadn't witnessed the splendor of the city when they were brought in as they were brought in through underground tunnels and along lifts that the public didn't frequent.

They reached the upper terrace a few minutes later, a corridor leading to the open area from the detention wing, once they bested the detention guards at the front desk.

The whole eight member group, now armed with the guard's weapons, which Becker explained to them on the move, stopped as their gazes fell over the city below them.

They stood on a terrace that over looked stepped descending floors of marble like floors and glistening glass walls, foliage interspersed throughout as if it belonged there, trees, huge, redwoods, and sequoias spread out in a perfect circle, making up the outer supporting ring of the largest dome.

Tunnels were bored through the trunks making way for the twin lanes that made up the causeway for traffic, with exits from the thoroughfare in each major sector of the city. It was a glorious design, a masterpiece, each building a custom made marvel of stone and glass and the gardens, there were gardens so supple that it put a green thumb to shame; it was if they had been engineered.

The whole place was temperature controlled so that it was a constant 72, despite the lingering last blinks of the ice age beyond. In the center dome, there appeared to be a crystal palace, but wasn't the governing body as formerly thought, it was the powerhouse that fed the city, the pulsing heart of the Atlantic Institute, Atlantis.

"Move," Becker was the first to break away from the enchantment of witnessing the city in all its glory for the first time and they all soon followed suite, moving with him.

They made it out in a wash of stealth, violence, and luck, the whole group working as a well-oiled machine. By the time they made it to the anomaly, they were all surprised to see that it was still open.

"Spencer, Falcon, Marconi, Grant," Becker motioned them through the anomaly relaying for them to give a report of what they had found. As they started on their way he turned to Matt, very aware that it was generally his place to give the orders.

"You and Emily should go too, there's no telling how long his anomaly will stay open, if we'll even make it back," Becker told him softly. He looked to Connor who was already looking to move on, to head out and find Abby and Jess.

Matt gently stretched his hand towards he and she took it gently, moving nearer him. "We've already decided to stay and look for Abby and Jess," he explained with her smile as confirmation of her agreement. "Then we find out why there are colonists from the future here."

A single nod wavered through the group before they broke to move. They had to put distance between them and the city and they needed to do it fast…

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Sneaking out in the middle of the night was a plan meant for much warmer weather and Abby and Jess were still feeling the bite of the cold come midday two days later. They'd managed to stay warm by huddling together the first night.

And while they huddled Abby told mirthful tales of her and Connor's early friendship, his offer to do the same so many years before, and an accompaniment of other stories that wavered from friends to lovers to soul mates.

Jess was more than willing to throw in with her own sprawling tales that weathered the gauntlet of her and Becker's relationship. They'd denied their feelings for quite some time and then hidden the relationship and then…She'd frowned in bittersweet remembrance of Becker's proposal and her acceptance all while in freezing water, death a door knock away.

Travel kept them warm the day after and then Abby decided they were a safe enough distance out to set a fire the second night. They'd taken turns on watch, Jess taking the longest as she knew that Abby needed more rest with the baby near here.

By the second night the caves that the tribe had mentioned were a welcome sight. Jess set up camp with Abby quietly resting, not mentioning the pain that Jess saw etched in her features. Jess worried that labor was setting in.

They barely had food left from what they'd took when they ran away before Valenti's men ambushed the tribe and she wasn't sure she could successfully pull off a hunt to sustain them.

Jess finally settled in beside her friend, the fire light bringing the both of them warmth as they huddled near. "Do you suppose Vitri will go easy on them?" Jess was worried about the tribe. She may not have agreed with a lot of their practices or the subjugation of their women, but once you got to know most of them, they could be good people. It was their way.

"I hope so," Abby had a soft spot of some of them as well. Not Amn, but his sister, the children. Abby swallowed at the thought. They'd left them. In normal circumstances it wasn't Abby or Jess's first choice, but they understood the score and the tribe would endure.

Silence reigned for another moment before Jess broached the fearful topic she's been avoiding most of the afternoon. "Are you in labor?"

Abby was quiet a long moment before she replied. "I think so."

"How long?" Jess asked worriedly.

"Since this afternoon, just before we got to the cave." Abby sighed as she leaned back with a grimace, letting the warmed stone comfort her.

Jess flicked her tongue over her top lip, trying to hold it together.

"Hey it's natural. I know how to do this," Abby confessed, though there was a glimmer of fear in her eyes as she tried to reassure Jess and herself in one fell swoop.

Jess jumped as she heard footsteps outside though and the moment of reassurances was gone as she got to her feet and peered into the darkening night. She didn't have to peer long before two shapes came into view with more substance and she let out a breath in horror to find that Loct and Amn had tracked them.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

**Next Chapter: **Connor, Becker, Matt, and Emily search for Abby and Jess as Abby fully goes into labor. Jess tries to talk some sense into Loct and Amn. REUNION :D


	6. Bitter Escape

**A/N: **_Hope everyone has had a wonderful Holiday season and I wish you guys all a great new year! _

**Chapter Six: Bitter Escape**

_It turned out that Vitri's madness wasn't unfounded, but his methods for dealing with the threat were anything but merciful. The second week in lock up in the Atlantic Institute they separated Jess and Abby placing them in cells with other suspected infiltrators. _

_Jess ended up in a cell with Loct while Abby met Raj…_

_Jess and Loct didn't have a lot to say considering he wasn't much into English and she didn't speak his precursor. They did manage a bit, but it was slow going. Over the next week Loct became protective of Jess, obviously smitten. _

_They found a common ground the both of them teaching the other some of their language mixed with charade like sign to bridge their language gap. In between the usual torturous antics were kept up from the Institutes end._

_Abby and Raj didn't have as much of a problem with communication. Raj really was an infiltrator, from the Bombay Institute. It took a few days for Raj to warm up, to begin to trust her, after countless stories about her life and the A.R.C. all things she had been more than willing to share with Vitri, though he still didn't believe her. _

_Raj did. _

_They sat beside each other knees pulled back, forearms resting there, Abby shivering from the thin shorts and tank they provided and the lack of warmth in the cell. Raj wasn't much better off clad in shorts and a broader tank, all white wash and sterile looking. It made his mahogany skin seem paler. But then maybe it was. He had been there several weeks longer than Jess and her. _

"_2417…" Abby marveled at the year with an awed shake of her head, swallowing tightly as she fought the waves of nausea that were rolling through her stomach, reminding her the conversation that she hadn't been able to have with Connor. _

_She choked the emotion back, trying not to have a complete melt down right then and there, her heart already aching with the possibility of losing him forever. _

"_2012," Raj smirked in reply with a likewise shake of his head. They were lost in shade of broken, both still trying to keep up appearances, both needing the distraction of stories from their lives. _

"_Good years, yeah," Abby chuckled seeing his nod from the corner of her eye as she sniffed back the tears that had already glassed her eyes over. They'd talked at length about work and projects and she knew all about the Bombay Institute and the history of all the Institutes, why they needed to infiltrate each other's compounds. They were past sharing professional. _

_They were now into distraction and the personal. _

"_Connor's probably asleep by now," Abby whispered, blinking rapidly as her tongue darted over her lips a hitch to her breath. _

"_Shezri, too," Raj nodded. It was the first time either of them had mentioned the names of their spouses. _

"_I bet she's lovely," Abby peered up through the skylight so far away, blinking at the crescent moon beyond. _

"_He," He smirked in correction, his gaze more fixated on his trembling hands, "And yeah." There was another long silence, both of them fighting a losing battle with their emotions as they continued to share, their fears becoming so obvious. "So this Connor…" _

"_He's absolutely brilliant; our anniversary was yesterday, married two years." Abby confided. "I was waiting to tell him while we were out celebrating that I'm pregnant."_

"_Geez," Raj whispered with a shaded glance looking her over. "Have they…" _

"_I get as much food and water as you, they know…but as far as I know they aren't concerned with taking care of me or the baby," Abby welcomed the anger as the tears subsided under the heat rising behind her eyes. _

"_I'm sorry," Raj whispered. _

"_Don't," Abby craned her head, meeting his dark eyes. "Don't apologize for Vitri's cruelty." _

_Silence settled between them once more. "Tell me about Shezri." Abby finally pleaded with him, needing something to balm the silence between them, something to distract her from her own sorrow. _

_Raj talked for hours and she welcomed every word, laughing at tales of their antics in the Historical Society. Apparently the Historical Society functioned more like MI -6 or the CIA from where Raj was from. Shezri and Raj began as partners in the Society and over the years became partners in every sense of the word. _

_Shezri was supposed to come on this mission with him, but had gotten a bad case of food poisoning the night before they were set to depart. Instead Silas, an alternate, was chosen. Silas was killed when they were detected in the energy core, working to dismantle some equipment for parts that the Bombay needed to keep their own colony functioning. _

_Parts from the future had become hard to come by and now the colonies out there were cannibalizing the other colonies in order to keep their technology working. Apparently the idea of colonizing the past was less appealing when one had to go native. Abby had already attested to that when she told Raj of how she and Connor spent a year in the Cretaceous. _

_The sun was nearly up and while Abby welcomed it, she was still enthralled in the latest tale, but Raj was interrupted when the guards came. _

_Today was different, today marked the day they were to die. They had, all of them, Abby and Jess, the girls from 2012, Raj, the infiltrator from the Bombay, and Loct, the innocent native, they were all marked as traitors to the Atlantic Institute. Today they were to be executed._

_Their saving grace came when the execution squad took them outside the city to an outlying farm to dispose of them, Vitri's misdeeds never to befall on a gaze of the city dwellers. _

_Loct's men were ready. _

_In the midst of lining up for the firing squad that was soon to take them to their deaths the Tribe attacked. All the prisoners, and there were more than the four of them, fought back as well. It was close even with the numbers on the tribes side. _

_The Atlantic's superior weapons gave the tribe a rather nasty fight. In the end, however, all the prisoners of the Atlantic Institute, became prisoners of the Tribe. Abby thought they were saved for a hot second. But they had just joined a different nightmare. _

_The tribe welcomed their own back to the fold and then promptly executed all of the guards and male prisoners, including Raj…_

_Jess's standing with Loct saved her and Abby and soon they were taken as wives. Loct took Jess as his own and gave Abby to his brother Amn._

They'd passed horrors on their escape, Vitri and his men had enslaved a local tribe and the battle ground was still fresh.

"I overheard one of the guards with knowledge of the native tongue explaining that some might have escaped, there was talk of a fair haired pregnant women and a red head…" Becker swallowed hard as he refused to meet Connor, Matt, or Emily's eyes. "Their husband's, aren't among the prisoners either."

Connor was slow to follow, "They can't be our…"

"The blonde is pregnant." Becker spoke up, "Ready to pop."

Silence followed as the group kept on the move at a steady pace. They had to put some distance between them and men moving back towards the city. Not to mention the men that might be coming after them.

"It's probably a local society dominated by male influence. They might have had no choice in order to survive," Matt finally pointed out softly as they moved.

"No…no," Connor's face contorted in a mix of anger and disgust at the very thought. It wasn't the thought of her touching someone else that enraged him so much as realizing that it was against her will. What she must have suffered despite all the torture of the Institute and while he wanted some hope that this woman could be his Abby, that she was close, the very idea that she had been through so much sickened him.

God, he knew how strong she was, knew she would do whatever it took, whatever was in her power to protect their baby and herself and Jess and dammit to hell they'd all been thrown into one insane situation after another.

The group grew quiet once more as Becker tracked what he could, trying to find where he thought they stragglers may have been able to elude capture. The cold was bitter, but hope spurred them on, despite the truth that lingered between them, that now that 3 days had passed the anomaly was almost surely closed.

It was nearly nightfall, on the second night of rushing through the wilderness when they finally hit pay dirt. Twilight whispers kissed the horizon as they clung to the trees, seeing a gentle glow from a nearby cave, while watching the men they'd caught up with descend on said cave.

Becker and Matt gave knowing glances and signals and moved the four of them forward quietly to get a better look; they needed to make sure it was Abby and Jess.

They were advancing on the cave and that view they needed when the resounding thump of a body slamming into rock accompanied by a stifled cry that was cut off by the air being knocked from a woman's lungs. Frantic conversation in a language none of them understood followed and then a scream lit the night.

It was a scream that Connor recognized all too well… Connor felt his heart skip, the hair on the back of his neck stand on end, and in one breath was running, breaking their position as Becker moved at the same time. Matt and Emily trailed behind them, covering them as they surged forward.

Abby had angled herself to her elbows as Loct backhanded Jess, sending her to the cave floor so hard that the air had been knocked from her lungs, a rebuff for running away. She wanted to rush to her defense but a sudden contraction stopped her in her tracks, her scream the only reason Amn hadn't raised his hand to her as well.

"Apologize!" Abby called to Jess in English, trying to buy them some time, anything. She couldn't lose Jess too. "Just say what he wants to hear, tell him how afraid we were…" Abby panted in agony. She wasn't generally an advocate for this method but as they had very little in the way of options…this it was…

Jess was still trying to find her ability to breath, let alone her voice when bolts of bright white, more brilliant than the sun slammed into both Amn and Loct, rendering them unconscious in two single blasts.

Abby watched them fall in horror as she thought Valenti's men had found them, tears of terror already dotting her pained eyes. Abby scrambled, fighting against her labor pains to get to her feet and defend herself and the baby and Jess, throwing an instant punch as soon as the first shadow graced the entrance to the cave.

Her arm connected hard – nearly breaking bone as she heard a familiar cry in response and it was enough to shock her out of her next attack.

Connor…

Connor had bolted in her direction as soon as the threat was over – the two men now on the cave floor – then he saw the terror in Abby's eyes as he moved into her field of view. He must have seen her before she saw him because the attack was instant and Damn she was out for blood…

He blocked her attack and managed to capture her other wrist simultaneously as he met her eyes, the realization and recognition sinking in in a heartbeat. They hit their knees before each other, their arms in a tangle as they fought to embrace each other, to hold, to breathe each other in, tears mingled with half chuckles and gasps for breath.

Matt and Emily covered them as Becker collapsed next to Jess as well, her breath finally caught as she wrapped her arms around him, burying her face against his shoulder in tears of overwhelming joy. The distance between them all had been like a growing hole in their hearts made whole in a mere second in time, the wave of emotions stifling them all…

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

**Next Chapter: **_Labor fun for all and some nifty reconnection. :D_


	7. Heat

**A/N: **_I'm really glad that you guys like this fic. When I started it I thought it might be too different to get much of a reception. Thanks for the feedback :) It is very much appreciated and I hope that this chapter lives up to expectations. Merci! _

**Chapter Seven: Heat**

_Her lips felt like pure silk, tender and supple, her breath hot against his shoulder and neck as he captured her neck in his own gentle assault, growing more frantic with need at each passing touch. Their bodies crashed together in a jumble of movement, working to shed clothing in a fever pitch of desire. _

_Connor jumped awake, gasping for breath, "What to Expect When You're Expecting," flipping off his chest and into his lap as he quickly sat up, trying to shake himself from the dream, the memory. He sat there for the longest time, unable to move, unable to think. She was right there. Her scent still permeated his senses. _

_Connor closed his eyes, tears falling hard against his cheeks as he sobbed in a breath finally launching the book across the room in a fit of anger and despondency. She was still out there, somewhere in the past and reminding himself that he would find her wasn't hard, just so tiring sometimes. _

_After a few minutes he regained his composure and retrieved the book, finding it had fallen open near where he'd been reading about the end of the second trimester. Abby was around 26 weeks by now, give or take. Connor let out a sigh in longing as he plucked his stale tea from the table and took a flinch sip from the cup, wrinkling his nose at the taste as he headed to the kitchen to find something more drinkable. _

_He passed a calendar marked with all things Abby, pregnancy mile markers and leaned against the counter for a moment looking it over before he went about making the tea. _

_He had just set the kettle on when his phone went off. Connor fumbled to pull it from his pocket, his eyes widening in desperate shades of hope as he saw that it was Matt. "Yeah," Connor answered already swiping the prenatal vitamins from the counter on his way to gather his coat. _

"_We've got an anomaly, Heath is texting the address now," Matt explained. _

"_On my way," Connor shoved the vitamins in his pocket as he did every anomaly, knowing that this time it might be the right one…_

Connor shoved his feet against the floor of the cave hard, pushing his back against the wall as Abby's hold on his hand tightened to a death grip. She was situated between his legs, back resting against his chest, and as her hand tightened she pushed back as well, wedging him against the cave wall in desperate need of air.

"They're secure," Matt announced about Loct and Amn, who he'd just finished tying up with rope from their own primitive gear. He quickly clapped his hands together, rubbing hard to try and garner a little warmth with the introduction of friction. "How's the fire coming?"

Becker looked up from where he knelt, arranging the frozen efforts of foraged wood in what had obviously been used as a fire pit in the past. "It's not looking good," He retorted eyeing Jess where she sat, knees drawn to her chest, shivering hard.

"Move," Emily beckoned Becker as she leveled one of the Atlantic Institute's weapons at the fire pit. "I adjusted the settings from nonlethal to lethal." She explained as she fired a single bolt from the weapon and a swath of steam fizzled up from the wood. She shot it again and suddenly – there was fire. She smirked in triumph, "You're welcome." She said playfully.

A warm glow soothed over the group as Abby collapsed against Connor catching her breath from the passing contraction. "They're getting closer together," Jess whispered worriedly as Becker gently wrapped his arms around her, huddling close to help warm her.

"They're supposed to," Abby smiled tiredly. She and Connor both relaxed together on the next breath, the wall catching him as he caught her. Abby turned her head, looking up at him as he dipped down and they captured each other's lips in a tender kiss.

Despite everything that they had all been through and the fact that they had two captives still unconscious in the back of the cave, the mood in the room was a mingle of love and sweet relief, abating desperation and longing lightening the load for them all.

"Your timing is impeccable," Abby whispered against his lips, meeting his eyes at an odd angle.

"It's a little off," Connor countered wishing the last seventh months had been a nightmare they were just waking from. And they still had home to go. He met her lips again, hands loosening from the mangle hold she had on him a moment ago as he wrapped his arms around her.

Their kiss was broken as the next contraction took Abby's breath leaving her gasping against his lips as he readied for her next assault on his hand.

"She's nearly ready to give birth," Matt worried as he glanced from Abby and Connor back into the night beyond the cavern. Emily joined him and followed his gaze to the lantern light in the distance.

"Vitri's men," She whispered worriedly. She knew the guards wanted the stragglers from the tribe as well as those that escaped from the Atlantic Institute.

"It's not the whole guard, maybe four to six," Matt nodded. "They've spotted us by now," He motioned to the fire, knowing that it was unavoidable. Abby and Jess were nearly frozen through when they'd found them. "We've half an hour at the most."

Becker rubbed his hands up and down Jess's arms with purpose as she snuggled in against his chest, her body shaky with shivers, the cold running bone deep. There was a nasty bruise forming against her left cheek bone and he whispered a touch against it wincing as she did. He had to shove the anger down, bury it deep, hide it from her so that she could feel safe in his arms, but he wanted to do more than just knock Loct out, now.

"You have to know I had no choice," Jess whispered, closing her eyes as tears slipped down her cheeks, a wish wash of pulling away and clinging tighter as though she didn't know whether she deserved the warmth of his arms or not.

Becker hitched in a breath wishing he could wipe away the last seven months as he now gingerly wiped a tear from her cheek. The Atlantic Institute's hold on them was evident in the metallic discs flat against their necks, a souvenir they now all shared, but what the tribe had taken from her and Abby, he was only beginning to see. Becker kissed the top of her head tenderly, "That bastard isn't going to bother you anymore. I don't blame you for however you had to survive, Jess."

Jess turned in his arms meeting his eyes in an attempt to read the truth there, to make sure that he really didn't blame her. It was the love despite it all that touched her the deepest, the longing there, that caved her doubt and she smiled amongst the tears before wrapping her arms around him, both of them burying their faces against the others necks, holding so tight.

Abby's next muffled cry brought them all back around as Matt whirled from his sight on the enemy and he and Emily crouched near her and Connor, Connor's eyes now brimming with pain and worry. "Is this normal?" He asked Abby and the others as he feigned as calm as he could.

"This doesn't feel normal," Abby cursed under her breath, though as much as she helped to deliver a host of critter's little ones, even one human baby, she wasn't all that versed with how exactly this should feel.

"Keep watch," Emily ushered Matt away, back to the nearby mouth to the cave and then hurried back, trying to assess how close Abby actually was to giving birth. Emily wasn't a trained midwife, but she had been present at more than one birth as necessary with the anomaly jumping band of people stuck out of time.

The contraction tapered off and Abby sank against Connor the both of them falling back winded as Emily took a look at Abby's progress. "It's quite normal," she finally smiled to Abby in reassurance.

"Becker," Matt looked back over his shoulder as he hurried back to the stash of four stolen Institute weapons and he armed himself before making his way towards the cave mouth again.

Becker furrowed his brow reluctantly untangling himself from Jess as he got to his feet, weapon in hand in a heartbeat.

"Becker? Becker what? What's going on?" Abby asked frantically as she looked from Matt to Becker and then to the mouth of the cave, the helplessness of her condition putting her more and more on edge as she realized that they weren't out of danger yet.

"Get her back from the opening," Matt countered pointedly to Connor and Emily without answering her question as he and Becker took point at either side of the entrance, using the rock walls to cover them as much as possible.

Connor pushed himself to his feet as quickly as he could and scooped her up not about to question the action as it was clearly a matter of importance. He knew it had to either be the tribe or Valenti's men.

"Jess you should go too, get back near where the prisoners are," Becker called worriedly as he took a look at what had Matt so on edge now. "I make six…" Becker swallowed tightly as he counted the torch light. "But there could be more."

Matt gave a nod in agreement.

A moment later Connor joined them at the entrance trying to see what had them so spooked, weapon in hand as well, "Valenti's men?" He asked worriedly.

Another wave of nods went between Becker and Matt.

"She can't be moved again," Connor whispered in horror.

"She won't have to be. We'll make a stand here." Matt replied evenly as he took aim peering through the scope on the gun like weapon. "They won't make it to the cave."

Becker followed suite and Connor made his decision to return to Abby's side. He would return to help Matt and Becker if he had to and only then. He had just found Abby again and now in such need, so vulnerable, he couldn't leave her side right now.

"I feel like I should push," Abby got out between each labored breath as Jess held one hand while Emily kept an eye out for progression of her labor.

"Already?," Connor asked in wide-eyed wonder as he sank down at her other side, gladly accepting the pain of her hold on his hand. Abby looked back at him like he was crazy.

"What, you think I should wait?" She asked him in absolute disbelief. "Just let me know when it's a good time for you."

"I didn't mean…" Connor rolled his eyes as he realized that nothing he said was going to make much headway and he instead chose to bow out of the conversation with a kiss to her head and a gentle, "Sorry."

"He's just worried is all," Jess soothed giving him a hint of a smile as Emily finally weighed into the push or no push discussion.

"Should be fine now," Emily nodded to Abby.

And that was right about the time that all hell broke loose.

Jess screamed and ducked closer to Abby as a bolt of light from Vitri's men's weapons sprayed the lot of them with a blast of rock from impact against the back cavern wall.

All at once Matt and Becker open fired and the sound of whirring bolts sounded all around them in a deafening buzz of noise drowning out Abby's scream as she began the long hard chore of pushing. Connor scrambled as Jess took his place while he went to help Becker and Matt, obviously the back of the cave being no safer than the front until the men advancing on them were disabled or dead.

Another shot narrowly missed him as more rock spray fell over the women and the still unconscious Loct and Amn. Connor grimaced as he leveled his own gun while crouched for cover next to Becker.

The forest outside the cave was alive with a strobe like disco of firefight, bolt and bolt in return fire dancing together in crossing as tree bark burst into flames and splintered and crushed rock dusted in hazardous pebbles and grains of sand.

All the while Abby fought her own battle…

**OoOoOoOoOoOoO**

**Next Chapter:** _Connor and Abby's baby is born (I will take suggestion for names and gender if you want to leave it in a review :D ) Also the end result of the battle._


	8. Born Under a Bad Sign

**A/N: **_Thanks so much for all the suggestions for names and boy or girl…I've thought it all over and hope that everyone enjoys the outcome. Again the feedback is always appreciated :) You guys so totally rock _

**Chapter Eight: Born Under a Bad Sign**

_A month…They'd been gone a month…_

_Abby's face contorted as she fought the tears that wouldn't be compromised. She rolled over, naked against the animal skins, feeling like a cheap whore. She'd been reassuring Jess for days about what they were doing, trying to keep her spirits up, to keep a stiff upper lip, but now in the solitude of her tent, Amn gone for a morning hunt…She wept. _

_She wept for every unwanted touch, for every choice stolen, for the impossibility of happiness a millennium removed from now. She wept for Connor and their baby. She wept for the loss eating her heart alive. _

_She wept for ages on and off for nearly half the day, the others still shy on disturbing her as of yet. When at last she felt even remotely human she cleaned herself up and headed outside, knowing that she needed to find Jess and act normal. God, there was a time when she couldn't imagine being with Connor and now she felt the betrayal run bone deep. _

_Abby choked it down…she needed to find Jess._

_They were barely grasping the beginning hints of the language but they knew enough to interact on a rudimentary level. She could ask where Jess was…Abby wrinkled her nose at the thought. Apparently Amn was quite the catch, and he'd chosen her over several eligible women in the tribe, making her target to jealous misgivings from some of the others. _

_Abby frowned when Sorcha, the tribe's wiseman/medical guru, motioned her towards his shelter. Realizing the depth of the barrier that rested between them language wise he simply kept up with motioning, ushering her inside. Abby ducked down to enter the lean-to not about to question Sorcha in the face of the discipline that was so swiftly enacted around here. _

_She'd learned firsthand just how bad it could get when she and Jess tried to escape not long after the tribe adopted them by force. The beating left both of them broken for nearly a week and a half with Abby petrified that she would lose the baby. She couldn't risk that again, not until they had a better plan._

_Abby froze, just inside the tent, the overpowering scent of turpentine assaulting her senses. She found Jess sitting up, robe hanging loose around her gown, a soft sheen coating her chest as she struggle on each breath. "Jess?" Abby asked in horror as she sank down beside her friend. "What's wrong?" _

"_I think…pneumonia…" Abby rubbed a gentle hand against her back in soothing support as she frowned deeper. She knew she'd had a cold ever since they'd escaped the Atlantic Institute, but she thought she was getting better. _

_Just yesterday they had been gathering firewood near the river…Abby closed her eyes in realization. Jess had fallen into the icy water. She smoothed a hand over her hair and kissed her head gently, "Everything's going to be alright. I promise." She looked back to Sorcha and saw a hint of a reassuring smile there…compassion, something that had been sorely lacking as of late._

"Push," Emily had to scream it to be heard over the battle raging on all around them. She was alternating, trying to see Abby's progression and shielding her from the dust and rocky debris flying all around them.

"Two," Becker called declaring the number he'd seen go down as he switched targets and fired towards another torch light down the line of trees before them.

"Three," Matt added to that number. "Four still coming," He took another shot and frowned as his weapon made a whirring gurgle before sounding as if it was powering down. "I'm out."

Connor ducked another hail of debris and made his way over to Matt, escaping the bolts of light and heat that darted all around them. "Take mine, I'll head back to Abby," He tossed his gun to Matt who gave him a quick nod and true to his word made his way back just in time for…

"Push!"

"I am pushing!" Abby growled back at Emily as Jess shook dust from her hair. Connor instantly took over shielding Abby as best he could from the continuing assault against the rocks all around them.

Visibility had been reduced to a haze of fire lit smog as a distant thunder shook the whole cave, the source of the quake anything but evident.

"What…is…that?" Abby got out between breaths of agony, taking a short break between pushes. And as if in response to her question a sudden brilliant burst of light flashed over the top of the mouth of the cave. Matt and Becker stopped firing, backing up in shock as the bolt from a much larger weapon headed straight for the enemy.

In a heartbeat their eyes widened in horror as the shock wave from the blast of the bolt began to ripple backwards towards the cave.

"Get down!" Becker screamed as he and Matt made a mad dash to the others, Becker jumping over Emily and sliding to a stop just beside Jess in just enough time to cover her before a cloud of dirt, rocks, and bark splintered through the cave like shrapnel.

Sound came back in a subdued echo, everything muffled with a strange ringing that signified hearing loss from the blast. Sight was another story.

Matt had been in mid run, nearly to the group when the blast hit him full on – sending him hurtling into the far wall before he collapsed in a heap on top of Connor and Abby. Emily hadn't fared much better as she had taken a rock to the head, sending her slumping against Becker as he covered Jess.

The rumbling was still going on all around them, the rocks shivering under the strain. Connor had a fight in shoving Matt off his back from behind and still keeping from hurting Abby in the process, but as soon as he was free the realization that the whole cave could collapse hit him harder than Matt had.

Midnight debris surrounded them as the blast of particles had smothered the fire and nearly all of them in the process. "We have to get them out of the cave," Connor called over the rumble and the echo in his own ears to Becker. He was already scooping Abby up, the dampness from her water breaking still cold against her cloak.

There were no good options. Outside there was something dangerous inbound and the temperatures were hovering near ice age norms. Inside breathing was as much a challenge as managing to not be crushed by the cave itself. Becker was already disentangling himself from both Jess and Emily, finding that Emily was out cold.

"I'll get her, just help Matt," Jess told Becker quickly as Connor scooped Abby up and made his stumbling way to the cave mouth. He had just burst through to the crisp open air when something came flying over the top of the hillside and buzzed the treetops speeding on its way towards the way they had come before.

There was more coming – more of what? God only knew. Connor gently settled Abby near a tree that hadn't been stripped bare and quickly shrugged out of the sweater he'd swiped during their escape from the Institute. He then yanked off his over shirt, leaving him in a T-shirt as he readied to help Abby give birth. Emily and Matt were out and Becker and Jess may have to cover them, so he was it.

"I know this is less than ideal, but Abby…" Connor met her eyes, gently wiping the dust from her face along with a string of tears. He squelched the lack of confidence, the doubts, the fear, and placed a reassuring hand against her back as he kissed her forehead before meeting her eyes again, "I need you to push."

"Connor, there's…" Abby looked in winded horror at the lights light headlights from vehicles that were approaching from all around the small hillside that housed the cave.

"Forget about it," he shook his head motioning in that direction, "Look at me, me, Abby, ignore it, this baby, our baby, it's time, ignore everything else and push," He nodded, praying that she followed suite and soon, much to his relief she was, nodding in understanding. "That's it…" he smiled through the haze of dusty tears and rubbed a circle against her back in reassurance. "Now push…"

Abby's next scream tore through the night as Jess half dragged half carried Emily out behind Becker and Matt and set her down next to Abby while Becker stood at Connor's back protectively, ready to fight off whatever it was that was coming around the hill in rumbly glory.

"Oh God," Connor's eyes widened in absolute awe.

"What?" Abby panted in horror, fear lacing her tone.

"No, no," Connor shook his head. "It's…not bad…" he smirked brilliantly. "I see the head…"

Abby leaned back with a pained smile as she lulled her head against the tree in exhaustion, the light from the vehicles still gaining ground as the night was lit all around them.

Jess was checking Matt and Emily over worriedly, trying to see how bad off they were as Connor called for Abby to push again and God was she giving it her all. "They're alive, Emily's been hit in the head, I don't see any other injuries, but Matt…" Jess broke off quietly next to Becker as she tried to explain her findings quietly so as not to alarm Connor or Abby more than they had to be already.

Becker took his eyes off the hillside for a hot second to meet her eyes worriedly. "He's been impaled by wood fragments. I can't tell how deep they go. There's at least three."

Becker glanced back to see that she had settled him on his side and took a short breath. Dammit. They needed a break, something going for them, anything. "Alright, keep him still until we know what's coming." Becker replied evenly. He wasn't sure what he expected when he envisioned his reunion with Jess, but this wasn't it…all hell breaking loose in an unending barrage. They both suddenly jumped as another four aircrafts surged over the hill top, headed past them towards the Institute.

"Connor, is the head out?" Abby asked at a pant another lull in the pushing giving her a moment to talk him through the rest of this, "You might have to help get the shoulders through," She explained.

"Yeah, yeah, alright, I'm…I can…yeah," Connor nodded fervently.

Abby blinked at him. "Is the head…"

"Oh. Yeah," Connor nodded eyes darting back and forth from the baby to her, "Ready for another push?"

Abby shook her head, but then she gave it go anyway.

"That's it! Yes!" Connor exclaimed overwhelmed and all smiles as all at once, the sound of crying accompanied his swaddling their baby in his over shirt. Abby collapsed back against the tree again winded with a joy filled laugh in exhaustion and so many other emotions she could hardly keep up. "We have a son," He whispered out in awe, the light and crud that was happening all around them, lost to that one blessed truth as Connor placed the baby in Abby's arms, one hand settled on his tiny stomach over her hand.

It was love at first sight, for them both…

"Oh my …" Jess smirked looking back to them in amazement, "He's…" She started, but quieted when she saw that Abby was trying to get a word in.

"He's perfect," Abby whispered with a tender kiss to his head.

"You both are," Connor agreed.

Becker couldn't help to give a smile as well as he witness the mirth behind him, but it was short lived amidst the turmoil still boiling all around them.

Suddenly what could only be futuristic versions of Sport's utility vehicles came flying over the hill top. There were dozens, dozens of dozens, and behind them people on horseback, and behind them marching.

It was an army.

"The Bombay is going after the Atlantic," Becker realized in horror. "This is an army marching to war."

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

**Next Chapter: **_Abby and Connor name their little one. Abby meets Shezri, Matt and Emily are treated, and Becker and Jess have a private moment. _


	9. Q & A

**A/N: **_So I didn't quite get to where I thought this chapter was going to end up, but it's one chapter closer to the end of this little tale. Thanks again for the name suggestions. I really liked the sentimental suggestion, but I had quite the soft spot for many of the names. They were all well conceived. Thanks for the feedback and I hope that everyone had a lovely New Year :) Happy New Year!_

**Chapter Nine: Q & A**

"_What would you say your strengths are?" Matt asked as Connor shifted with a sigh, bordering between bored and offended as Matt questioned their newest candidate to take over management of the menagerie._

_She was giving the usual lists, the things employers loved to hear, all the answers seemed in place and hell she even seemed sincere. Connor wasn't impressed though._

_Matt finished with his list of questions and finally turned over the floor to Connor who Lester wanted to sit in to add to the interview, considering his extended experience with all things A.R.C. and the creatures themselves._

"_I have a hypothetical…" Connor leaned over the table in bored glory, elbows resting as he met her eyes with indifference._

_She smiled readying for the test he was about to throw at her, gently nudging her ebony locks behind her ear._

"_Let's say you're called to deal with an unknown quadruped herd rampaging through the…"_

"_Connor," Matt cautioned._

_Connor grew silent with a hiss in of breath and looked at him in disbelief. How were they supposed to hire people who had no idea what they would actually be doing. "This isn't right." Connor replied instead of going on, and promptly rose from his chair, nearly knocking it over in his rush to get out of the room. _

_Becker joined him as soon as he exited the room making a bee-line for his own lab. "So?"_

"_She's not right for the job," Connor replied instantly._

"_Did Matt let you ask any of the pertinent questions?" Becker sighed. Connor shook his head continuing at his present pace._

"_You know it's all need to know, after the fact." Connor scoffed._

"_Right," Becker didn't like it any more than he did, but they were having trouble finding someone with the military background that was capable of aiding the specialized expertise that Abby had and Lester was now combing the private sector, something that Becker wasn't comfortable with, not with everyone they had already lost._

"_How's Heath adjusting?" Connor asked as he paused walking through the main hub, seeing the new ADD tech still familiarizing himself with the equipment._

_"He's…" Becker cocked his head to the side searching for the right words, when he didn't find them he gave a shrug, "Adjusting." Connor understood. _

_They both realized that despite Abby and Jess disappearing there was still a function that the A.R.C. served and they couldn't do that without filling the void where Abby and Jess had been previous. Connor and Becker were struggling - trying to figure out how they could accept someone else in those positions without saying goodbye to the ones they loved. _

_It was an everyday struggle even six months on. _

"I want to see my wife!" Connor screamed as he pounded on the door to his new cell inside the main hub for the army, a large rolling battle unit that housed a sort of barracks, infirmary, and cells for prisoners. It was traveling sort of in the midst of the troops. Becker sank against the back wall, not much happier, played out from his own screaming fit earlier.

"Connor, I'm sure she and the baby are fine," Becker tried to soothe him.

"This is completely wrong, Becker. The world wasn't supposed to be this way in this time period. This is so wrong, and everything that is happening out there has to have some consequence on the future, our future, and the only thing we're all sure of right now is that Abby and Jess are in the same vehicle and the chances of all of us going home are miniscule. We have to get out of the middle of this war and find a way to survive, without being captured and tortured for answers every other day." Connor vented feeling completely beside himself as he looked out the window to the cell and gave a another pound against the door. "I want to see my wife!"

"Connor…" Becker started again as he pushed himself to his feet, Connor whirled on him a look in his eyes Becker had never seen before.

"Aren't you worried about Jess?" Connor asked him in exasperation.

Becker's mouth twitched, his jaw tightening as he had to reign his anger in to keep from physically assaulting Connor or lashing out verbally. "Of Course, I'm worried about Jess and I'm worried about Matt and I'm worried about Emily, but that is not going to help me get out of this cell and find them." Becker retorted darkly. "I get it. I get it, better than anyone. We just found them…"

"We just lost them - again!" Connor sniffed back the rage filled tears as he slammed his hand into the cell door with a scream.

"No we haven't," Becker promised him, knowing why it was that Connor was filled with such rage, coming apart at the seams. Becker was barely holding it together himself, he was just doing a better job at hiding it. If all his hope was for naught, if they really had lost them again, then all bets were off.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"If I hear one more bell or gong, I'm going to…" Abby huffed out as she twisted in the bed to look for the speakers where the tones were coming from. It wasn't even music, just a series of sounds. She grew quiet as the door popped open and a entirely too chipper woman popped her head into the room.

"The techi's here." She explained quickly as if that was somehow supposed to brighten Abby's day.

"I don't want to see this… techi. Where's my baby? My husband?" Abby yanked at the soft binds that held her steady to the bed by her wrists and ankles as if she was some mental patient, a harm to herself or others. If they would only unbind her, she might just show them that there was some truth to their fears.

"Oh they're fine, just fine," The nurse was on something, she was sure of it. No one was that happy all the time. No one. That's all she needed was some hyped up futuristic whatever the hell she was handling her baby. "Here's the techi," She pushed open the door wider and allowed a lithe lanky man in a white button up shirt, black tie, and black 'skirt?' walked into the room, looking over a black box in his hands.

"I need to see your left wrist to identify the problem with the statchip." He told her blandly as though this was as exciting for him as brushing his teeth.

"I don't have a statship," Abby sighed. That got a look up from his box.

"Right," he scoffed. "Your English would say otherwise," He shook his head with a smile still as though she were really joking with him. "How long ago were you captured by the Greenhorns?"

"The what?" Abby arched an eyebrow, not sure they were actually speaking the same language.

"The Nomads of Greenhorn, how long ago were you captured?" He asked her again as he turned her bound wrist without much help from her. He put some sort of scanner over it and frowned.

"No statchip," Abby reiterated.

"But that's…" he looked up meeting her eyes in disbelief. "Everyone at the institutes have statchips," he argued. She gave him a shrug.

"I'm not from an institute," She had explained this and everyone just baffled, no one wanting to believe that even though their ancestors had come from an anomaly that anyone else had ever done so. Maybe they were so removed from it that they didn't really understand them more, or maybe only the higher ups did. Whatever the case no one wanted to believe that she was from another time.

"I came through an anomaly from the year 2012. My mates being held prisoner and being treated in the medical ward, they did too - we're not in any way affiliated with the Atlantic Institute or the Bombay Institute and as for the Greenhorns, they captured myself and Jess six months ago when they attacked an execution squad from the Atlantic Institute and saved myself, Raj Crest, Jess, and a handful of others from being slaughtered by Vitri Valenti's men. Those Greenhorns then turned around and killed all the men except their own that they rescued and forced my friend and I into marriage…" Abby rattled off in a rant out of anger and pure frustration at the situation. "Then my real husband, the man I love more than life itself, who I might add is also the father of our beautiful baby boy, and our mates from the future, came to find us and were smack in the middle of a rescue mission when you and your mates imprisoned us as spies from the Atlantic Institute!" Abby was ready to lose it. It had been one bad month after another and she'd barely grasped freedom when it was pulled away once more.

"You know of Raj's fate?" The techi asked after a long pause after all of that.

Abby furrowed her brows in wide wonder. "That's what you took from all that?" She took a breath, trying to calm down. "Yes, I know what happened to Raj. We spent a bit in a cell together. He told me about Shezri and his life and we became friends. I was devastated when Loct and his men killed him." Abby's eyes glassed over as she sniffed back the tears. "And he would have stood up for me against this injustice, now." She whispered tearily.

"This could change everything," the techi looked almost frantic now as he quickly checked the back of Abby's neck to see if her could find the port that would give credence to her tale.

"Please tell me you have better methods of making sure I'm telling the truth other than memory extraction," She asked in horror. Techi pulled back with a frown. "I'm not sure I'm up for torture so soon after childbirth."

"It's only painful when it's meant to be," Techi assured her, letting her know all the more just how sinister Vitri was. "I just need to check," he explained quickly and he was right. In a matter of moments he had the information that he needed and there wasn't a bit of pain involved. "I'll be back soon."

"Wait…" Abby frowned at his sudden change of demeanor and swallowed tightly. The techi was already gone though, disappearing through the door in a whir of motion, knee high skirt swishing against his bare legs as he went. Abby leaned back against the pillow and let out a long deep breath, closing her eyes as tears slipped down her cheeks. Was an explanation too much to ask for? A guess at what had changed, if anything…

A few moments later though it was like a nightmare had lifted. The chipper nurse walked in in a buzz of motion, quickly releasing her from her binds just as Stephen Nicholas was brought to her. She and Connor had named him before the guards descended on them over the hilltop. They named him after Stephen and Nick, but planned on calling him Nick. The latter Connor's request. Abby was so happy she wasn't about to question her new found fortune. She took Nick into her arms and hugged him tightly, breathing him in in sweet relief. Now she just needed Connor at her side and all her friends safe and sound and while she was wishing…a way home.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Connor pushed off the far wall at a turn when the cell door behind him latched open. Becker rose slowly, readying to react defensively, should he need to. Both were pleasantly surprised. "Abby?" Connor rushed to her in relief as he realized that she had Nick swaddled to her chest. He wrapped his arms around her, where she stood just inside the cell as he leaned in and kissed her lips and than Nick's sandy peach fuzz.

"Come on you two," Abby smiled when at least she and Connor disentangled and she was able to meet Becker's eyes as well.

"What is this? Where is Jess?" Becker asked quietly as he and Connor joined Abby and baby in the hallway. Two guards were at their back, but they didn't seem quite so menacing as before. The whole lot of them was led off the cell block and into a more friendly area of the unit, heading towards some pretty secure looking areas.

"She's getting a breathing treatment. The dust from the cave aggravated her lungs. The Doc's think she's going to be just fine," Abby assured him. "Emily is in the shower, feeling lots better and Matt is just getting the last of the puncture wounds healed in some sort of compression chamber. " Abby explained as best she could. "We are on our way to meet Shezri Crest, king of the Bombay Institute."

"King?" Connor and Becker asked in shocked wonder together.

"Abby, shouldn't you be resting?" Connor worried, almost foregoing the explanation in his worry over how soon she was up and about just after childbirth.

"Probably, if we were back in 2012 without the lovely technology that the institute possesses. They've sped up my healing time." She winked back at Connor. Connor smirked at that, glad that she was alright, that everyone was alright…and now - now they were going to meet this king? When did Institutes get Kings?

"Shezri Crest sent his husband, leader of the guard, to infiltrate the Atlantic Institute so that they could pilfer their energy technology because the city of the Bombay Institute's power grid was failing. This whole war is about energy and revenge. Shezri blames Valenti for Raj's death." Abby explained. She'd finally gotten her wish and gotten a crash coarse in all things Institutes and why there was such hostilities between the two groups. "The rift is actually deeper, but the history isn't widely know, apparently there was considerable competition between the two groups before they every set foot in the past."

"So you think you can talk Shezri out of attacking the Atlantic?" Becker wondered just what is was they were going to accomplish by meeting the King.

"Oh, no," Abby shook her head quickly. "I just have a message for him from Raj. We were cell mates for a while at the Atlantic. I'm just hoping that he'll let us get clear before the battle begins." She explained, "With similar gear to what we had when we arrived, anything to help us locate another anomaly back to our time."

"Amen to that," Becker smirked as he they all shared a smile on their way to meet the King.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

**Next Chapter:** _Becker and Jess have a moment and the Battle begins. There are probably only two chapter left, but there is a possibility that the next chapter could end this story._


	10. Whispers in the Dark

**A/N: **_Well, this is the last chapter, but it may just close the first story in a duo or trio. I haven't made up my mind yet. I plan to at least get one update for my longer running story on FF before I decide. _

_The feedback has really spurred my muse onward all during this story. Thank you a bunch, from the bottom of my heart :) Writing wouldn't be near so rewarding without someone to share it with!_

**Chapter Ten: Whispers in the Dark **

_The King's court was solemn and dark, shrouded in shades of Abby's last memories of Raj playing out on a screen in the back of the room, only Shezri and a handful of guards in attendance._

_Connor and Becker stood to either side of Abby who cuddled Nick close to her chest in the newly fashioned simple navy blue carrier sling that helped to support him. Without turning to greet them the King, a tall handsome man every bit as Raj described him, dark and beautiful, motioned them closer from behind. _

"_He cared for you very much, as you did him," Shezri made the simple statement, his voice choked with emotion it was obvious he was trying to hide. _

"_Yes, your highness," Abby was really sure how to address him. Raj hadn't even told her that he was a King, let alone the customs for dealing with royalty in their day and age. She didn't know if they should bow or…_

"_Sit with me," It wasn't an order but they all joined him, in the seats as if they were watching some home movie, not Abby's nightmares. _

_Connor was already feeling ill watching the screen as it looked like Abby had been grabbed from behind around the middle and was being dragged backwards by force, her screams mingling with the others macabre sounds of the massacre that had claimed the King's man. _

_Becker watched, but had also paled as he saw Jess In another man's arms, screaming in horror as she saw the carnage. He hadn't been there, hadn't been able to protect her. She wasn't even in the field and had been through more hell than he could have imagined. _

"_You fought for him, all that you could, and for that I owe you a great debt, my dear." Shezri explained as he gently took Abby's hand in his own. "I confess that I have watched bits and pieces back as far as a year from your mind and I know that you are truly from another time. I cannot get you back there. We can detect and date them, but we cannot make one." _

"_If you can give us the means to detect and date anomalies, some simple gear, and some means of transport, all we wish is to get out of your way, off to ourselves so that we can live in peace and perhaps find the way home ourselves." Abby explained to him gently._

"_This is something that I can do," he nodded. _

"_Thank you so much," Abby smiled sadly the screen still playing horrors from the past. "Was everything about Silas and you and the historic society a cover story?" She finally asked her curiosity now stirred about who Raj really was. _

"_It was a story that he and I came up with to spare him the further torment of knowing that he is bound to the King. He knew they were listening to you talk in the cells." Shezri nodded sorrowfully. _

_Abby licked at her lips sniffing back tears as she realized how much Raj had kept hidden from the guards and yet was still able to speak such volumes about his love for his King. She kissed Nick's head again quite sure more for her own comfort than his as she looked back up to meet Shezri's eyes. "He told me when we were marching to the countryside with the death squad that he had sung your love into eternity," Raj had described the ritual, a sacred art of weaving poetry and song into a promise of sorts. She wasn't up on the religious connotations but it sounded beautiful from what she did discern. _

_Shezri choked on a sob at the news and in a matter of a breath captured her in a hug in respect and appreciation for her message of a dying man's last words. "Thank you," Shezri whispered. _

_Abby hugged him back tenderly, meeting Connor's teary eyes over his shoulder. He smiled in awe of her even more, the love that he had still so easy to read there in his eyes. _

_OoOoOoOoOoOoO_

_Becker sank into the chair by Jess's bedside, seeing her color improving in leaps and bounds, his heart settling in sweet relief. He could see that she had been sick from the first reunion, but it was so good to know that she would be ready to travel by tomorrow, healed, healthy, whole. He knew there was a lot still to the healing process, but at least having her health was a good start. _

_Becker gently leaned over her and kissed her cheek, needing the nearness while somewhat hoping he didn't wake her from her much needed rest. He had barely pulled back when her gentle stirring had him pause. Jess's eyes fluttered open, meeting his as she turned into the kiss, capturing his lips with her own. _

_Becker melted into the kiss, her arms wrapping around his neck, pulling him closer, nearly into the bed with her and by God he couldn't resist, as he fumbled to find a place to settle his knee where he wouldn't disturb her as he climbed in beside her. _

_Becker groaned against her lips as they tangled in a tug of war against wills sparring with gasps of breath, swirling tongues, and scrambling fingers. Finally it was the clearing of a throat from the nurse's desk that broke them from their love spell. Becker broke with a smile, holding himself up over Jess in the bed as he met her eyes. "Morning," He smirked. _

_Jess burst into the biggest smile giggling under him at his greeting. "Is it, now?" there weren't any windows but she would take his word for it. _

"_Yep, wonderful one at that," His smile broadened. He dipped down for another soft kiss which she gave into once more, but she pulled away first this time. _

"_I think the Doc might worry I'm not getting enough oxygen." She bit her bottom lip at an angle in full smile, trying to keep from laughing. _

"_Oh, right," Becker couldn't argue with that, and begrudgingly they both parted ways, he sinking back into the chair and she settling back against the pillows. "I have news." He leaned over the edge, resting his elbows on his knees as he took her hand in his own. "We're getting out of here." _

_Jess brightened. "We're going back?" she asked in hope. _

_Becker looked away, losing his smile momentarily as he brushed his thumb over the back of her hand. "We're going away from the Institutes, on our own, and we have the means to detect anomalies, but we don't know that we'll make it home." Becker explained softly wishing that he could give her home in a heartbeat._

_Jess was silent a long moment until she realized the depth of his guilt and sorrow and she gently lifted his chin with a single finger, forcing his gaze to meet hers once more. "I'm home. The only home I have is here." She rested her other hand against his chest over his heart. "We're together and everything else will work itself out." She whispered rising to meet his lips once more. "I'm already home…" _

_Becker melted again, guilt swept away as wrapped his arms around her pulling her to him even tighter, damning the need for oxygen for them both. _

(This next part was inspired by the song "We are the Tide" by Blind Pilot. Meaning I listened to it A LOT while writing it :P)

It took seventeen months and twenty –two days before an anomaly opened to 2016, which was close enough. No one argued that it was the right thing to take it and the whole lot soon found themselves home.

They had weathered some trying times, apart and together, but as fate would have it, life in the past wasn't their future…

Jess waddled to her chair in the conference room of the A.R.C. a souvenir from their time away having stowed away. They were a month home and finally finished with all the debriefings.

Strangely despite all the unusual activity from the future they had lived and breathed the present seemed unaffected, much like they knew it. It had Connor and Matt much more baffled then Becker cared to be.

Becker sank into the seat next to Jess, instinctually reaching for her hand- almost absently and she smiled as she took it. Matt and Emily sat across from them feigning professionalism, but under the table feet and ankles were playing for keeps.

Connor's head thunked to the table sleepily as Abby gently rubbed a hand over his back with a shake of her head and knowing smile.

"Carmen not quite used to the noise of the city?" Jess asked with a furrowed brow.

Abby shook her head. "Not even a little. Between Nick's deciding night time is the right time to explore and Carmen crying to eat every two hours, I'd say the city was the least of our worries." Still she smiled. "The noise doesn't help, though."

Carmen had been born just fifteen months after Nick and was just as keen on the precivilized sounds of the ancient world as her brother. They both were light sleepers. Rex swooped down onto Connors back, getting a laugh from everyone in the room as Connor roused to the heavy padding across his back.

They all quieted as Lester made his way into the room, the new team coming in behind him before they quickly sank into their seats and then Lester took to the front of the room to let them know what they were all there for.

The new team and the old were scarcely on speaking terms, as the elder of the two had been benched until further notice. Kids and commitments helped to solidify the orders, but they all still had a heart for the job.

"I've received word from above that the A.R. C. is soon to be incorporated under an umbrella into an International endeavor for Anomaly research. I'm told that the transition will go seamlessly, but you'll find some new regulations in the folders provided." Everyone was already flipping through the folders but they were now flipping faster as Lester went on.

"Wait what international endeavor?" Matt was the first to ask.

Lester swallowed tightly before going on. "Before I explain, I know what happened, but it's out of my hands." And that had everyone on edge now…

"James," Becker said worriedly.

"We're now under the umbrella of the Atlantic Research Institute…" Lester explained.

Silence reigned.

There had been whispers since they had been back, little things that seemed out of place that seemed to tell them all that things weren't as they once were, but they could find no true difference, just tiny little idiosyncrasies.

There had been whispers…little anonymous notes in the mail, hints of being followed and watched, but they were all so happy to be home that it felt like paranoia. Still the whispers in the dark had reached a crescendo that could no longer be ignored…

The tendrils of the madness that began 300 years in the future had already begun and they were now being informed that they were a part of it…

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

A/N: I would love to know what everyone thinks about the ending…good or bad :) Just please be constructive with your criticism.


End file.
